If you can be patient it will usually pay off. That's what I tell myself when we have a quiet market open like we did today. It can be difficult to sit around and wait for a trade that fits your plan. If you're the gambling type you might feel the urge to get involved, to make a play... just to get a bit of action!

If you're a trader though, what's the hurry? Are you doing this because you want the energy and endorphin rush that comes from taking a risky, unplanned trade or are you doing this to be PROFITABLE?

Trading Trends - Simple but Not Always Easy

There's nothing particularly special about today's trading. It's just a simple trending move, at least once it finally broke after an hour of waiting. Trends like this don't pop up all the time but when they do it's a simple matter of trading the pullbacks along the way.

While the trend is simple and the trades are fairly straight-forward I've never found bullish trends all that easy to trade as I've talked about in this Journal before. These bull trends tend to move a lot of chop and sometimes momentum is slow which makes it easy to hesitate, to second-guess yourself and your plan, and to miss your trade.

To trade these bullish moves you really need to trust in the trend and stick with it until it ends even if it means sometimes pushing somewhat outside your comfort zone to enter a position. Trends tend to run farther than most people expect and those who miss out early tend to jump in late only to get trapped, so it's usually best to just take those early trades and anything else that sets up along the way. The market will tell you when it's done.

Low on Energy

This slow to develop and occasionally grinding run isn't such a bad thing to deal with after yesterday's more chaotic market though. While yesterday demanded a lot of focus and I was willing to trade more aggressively as the morning played out due to the rapid movements of price, today was just a matter of waiting things out with discipline and patience until the setups arrived.

Even with a couple good trades wrapped up there wasn't much reason to keep pushing things after price became extended into an area of supply. That's the market telling me it's reached its goal for now, at least until it's had a bit of a chance to rest.

The market covered some ground today but it was a far cry from the energy it had yesterday. I couldn't help but feel like I was mirroring that low energy today as my focus waned so with supply reached and a cooling off period likely on the way it seemed a good time to preserve mental capital and wrap the session.

The purpose of this journal is to focus on the trading PROCESS and the development of trading skill and intuition over time. Most novice traders who are struggling to become profitable will focus on short-term RESULTS but it’s the PROCESS and following through on your PLAN that matters. If you know your edge then trust that process, trade your setups and allow your positive expectancy to play out.

I recommend that all traders regularly track their process every day including their emotional states, market insights and intuitions, and how well they stuck to their plan. My hope is that by sharing some of my thoughts I can encourage others to make a trading journal part of their process and perhaps even offer an insight or two that traders of all skill levels may find beneficial to their ongoing development.

Cody has over a decade of experience day trading the Emini S&P 500 (ES) and Forex markets and has worked personally with dozens of traders to help them achieve consistent profitability and make trading a full-time career.